English Electric P.10 (SR2)

[general melchett 7,709]

Hi folks, well finally managed to actually finish one this year. Whilst beavering away on the big Bucc and Overstrand I fancied a nice, quick build to get the juices flowing, (don't be disgusting Darling !!!) so thought I'd have a go at this little beauty, the S&M 1/144th English Electric P.10 hypersonic ramjet powered strategic reconnaissance aircraft that was cited for delivery to RAF Bomber Command by 1962. This is a real drawing board design dating from 1956 to ORI and was designed to operate at altitudes in excess of 70,000 feet at speeds exceeding Mach 3. It had a unique ducted ramjet wing boosted by two reheated RB123 turbojets in the rear wing roots. The powerful Napier ramjets, all 12 of them operated a low fuel/air mixture for sustained operation above 36,000 feet and the turbojets were used mainly for low speed flight including take off and landing. The ramjets were so efficient that it was estimated that the aircraft could cruise at 70,000 feet using only one quarter of the available thrust leaving a healthy margin for any evasive manoeuvres, the excess exhaust gases exited via a two dimensional convergent/divergent nozzle. Two removable outer 'wings' were also to be fitted which served as increased surface area for low speed handling as well as much needed fuel tanks and were jettisoned prior to acceleration to high Mach numbers, (not much fun for those living on the flight path !!!).It was to be flown by a crew of two, pilot and observer/navigator and used two sideways looking Red Drover aerials on KU band fitted along the bottom of the fuselage behind the nose gear bay. All in all a very sound idea but like so many innovative ideas of the time it was cancelled on grounds of cost. It was essentially designed as a proof of concept but EE were tasked to see if it were possible to design a bomber aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons at Mach+, however this was shelved early on and it is far more likely that the aircraft would have entered service as a strategic reconnaissance platform similar to the later SR-71, only a lot more efficient.

The kit is basic but accurate, (well it matches my EE brochure drawings that I have) and comes in solid resin, all 24 pieces and nice additions include the two outer wing tanks and recon belly pod. The only thing I changed was the undercarriage as I thought the kit parts way underscale, so I rebuilt them to match scale plans, (actually they come courtesy of a long defunct Airfix Trident !)

Airbrushed using four shades of gloss/satin white, (Tamiya +/- small amounts of light grey, Alclad magnesium and duralumin, medium sea grey and NATO black for the undercariage and the national markings are courtesy of Superscale.

I've painted her in the standard V-Bomber markings of the time depicting an aircraft serving with 'A' flight, 543 squadron based at Wyton in late 1962, (though I have a sneaking feeling that the runways may well have had to have been lengthened by a fair bit !) The only decal that comes with the kit is that for the canopy other than that it's all out of the spares box. It's marked up as XM788 taken from a cancelled second, mid production batch Victor B2, which as a 'super V-Bomber ' would be appropriate...

Sits nicely alongside my Skybolt VC10 and 'Bombcorde.and makes for an interesting 'what could have been'.

Hope you like it...next in the series will be a scratchbuilt Handley Page HP-100 to go with it. I'll be taking it to Cosford on Sunday as part of the 'what-If ' bomber Command display, so come and say Hi, (or throw rotten tomatoes at me if you prefer... ).

Cheers all,

Melchie...

Underside view showing the recon pack and camera windows in the open position....

The two additional wing/tanks. I thought of adding them but to be honest they spoil the sleek look of the machine.

Edited April 5, 2013 by general melchett

[Hawkkeeper 40]

amazing looking machine.

[crobinsonh 873]

Very nice indeed - that one certainly looks hi tech!

[F-32 2,869]

Seriously cool!

[Norman 807]

What a great job !!! wow i love it well done General sir !!!

What a nice change from all the threads whinging about new kits and accuracy

Brilliant work

Cheers

[theplasticsurgeon 5,379]

Very cool looking plane General - I'll look for it on Sunday.
I really like the way you've used tones of white, as usually goes for metal finish

[general melchett 7,709]

Thanks chaps, glad you like it. Norman, yep, I'm not really into all the moaning about accuracy, etc............I've always tended to fall more into the 'if it's not right then do something about it' brigade !

Thanks TPS, white and black finishes can be incredibly dull so why not spice it up a bit. If you look closely at a lot of well worn airliners and the V-Bombers of the time you'll notice multiple shades of white all over the place, just makes it a bit less uniform and a bit more interesting,

Cheers all,

Melchett..

[Big Kev 87]

Wow, that looks amazing and bizarre all at the same time! I've never heard of this machine before, let alone seen one. Great work!

Kev

[John_W 2,384]

If Donald Campbell had gone for an Air Speed Record...

[woody37 8,037]

You keep popping out these fantastic unheard of machines Andy, pure inspiration

Neil

[C460 15]

Very nice what-if!

Adrien

[jimbuna 315]

Very nice indeed.

[general melchett 7,709]

Thanks fellas it's always nice to know that others share my fascination with these fantastic creations, even if they never left the drawing board.....

John,

If Donald Campbell had gone for an Air Speed Record...

Do you know, that very thought crossed my mind too...it'd look just the ticket in Bluebird blue...!

[Viking 5,000]

General Sir, that is brilliant! It looks like it would have been totally feasable.

(Why have I now got the Thunderbirds theme playing in my head?)

Cheers

John

[gruffy 188]

That looks fast just standing still! Excellent build!

[fatalbert 366]

I like that very much,very Gerry Anderson,have you a copy of project cancelled,it's full of cancelled aircraft like this,I can heartily recommend it if you haven't already got it.

[general melchett 7,709]

Thanks again guys, fatalbert, yes thanks I have a huge amount of information on these projects, (thanks mainly to the guys on the Project Cancelled SIG, another of my regular haunts !), including scans of original design brochures, factory drawings and of course Barrie Hygates 'bible'. I'm going to try and get as many of them scratchbuilt over time as possible, including the FD III, Saunders Roe SR-178, Supermarine 553, Handley Page 100, and many, many more, mostly in 1/72nd but a few 1/48th too....should be fun.

[rotorheadtx 397]

Ho Lee Frak!!! Amazing!!

Edited April 6, 2013 by rotorheadtx

[George Norman 101]

Class finish on that model, Looks great and what a Subject!

[theplasticsurgeon 5,379]

Good to see the model for real at Cosford today.

Great to meet the General

[general melchett 7,709]

Thanks all, likewise TPS, great day and so nice to meet everyone again. Spent more time chatting to everyone than actually looking at what was on offer and before you knew it...it was all over...(as per usual),

The P.10 seemed to go down well with folks, with the words 'Thunderbirds' and 'Gerry Anderson' cropping up a lot....can't think why...

Thanks to all that came over to our table..

Cheers,

Melchie...

Edited April 9, 2013 by general melchett

[Bill Bunting 877]

Sweeeeeeeeeeet! (Doppler effect).

[Nick Millman 1,831]

Super isn't really sufficient to describe it. A stunning model. Indeed the RAF as Gerry Anderson might have envisaged it!

Nick

[Fishbed 1,035]

Oh you have done it again. Luverly job. Does meen I will have to get Project Cancelled out again for a read......

Tim

[robvulcan 3,813]

thats fantastic what an unusual beastie i just love the flash white scheme i think anything would look good in that even my clapped out Peugeot 306. though it belches that much black smoke it might not be a good idea.

i love the photos of it with the background. very realistic

cheers Rob